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Eurovision Scrutinizes Israel's Song Lyrics amid Gaza Furor

An Israeli tank maneuvers near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, February 22, 2024. REUTERS/Susana Vera
An Israeli tank maneuvers near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, February 22, 2024. REUTERS/Susana Vera
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Eurovision Scrutinizes Israel's Song Lyrics amid Gaza Furor

An Israeli tank maneuvers near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, February 22, 2024. REUTERS/Susana Vera
An Israeli tank maneuvers near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, February 22, 2024. REUTERS/Susana Vera

Eurovision Song Contest organizers are scrutinizing the Israeli submission after lyrics leaked to the media appeared to refer to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the Gaza war.

Eurovision, which this year will take place on May 7-11 in the Swedish city of Malmo, bills itself as a non-political event and can disqualify contestants deemed to have breached that rule, Reuters reported.

Israel's entry, "October Rain", is a ballad sung by female soloist Eden Golan.

According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, it includes lines such as "There's no air left to breathe" and "They were all good children, each one of them" - apparent allusions to people who holed up in shelters as Hamas gunmen carried out a killing and kidnapping spree at an outdoor music festival and other sites.

The song also contains a reference to "flowers" which, Israel Hayom said, is military code for war fatalities. A source in national broadcaster Kan, which sponsors the Israeli entry, confirmed to Reuters that the leaked lyrics were accurate.

In a statement, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes Eurovision, said it is "in the process of scrutinizing the lyrics, a process which is confidential between the EBU and the broadcaster until a final decision has been taken.

"If a song is deemed unacceptable for any reason, broadcasters are then given the opportunity to submit a new song or new lyrics, as per the rules of the contest," the EBU added.

Kan said it was "in dialogue" with the EBU about the issue.

Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar said in a post on X that any decision to disqualify "October Rain" would be "scandalous".

He denied that the song is political, saying it "gives voice to the feelings of the people and the country nowadays".

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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.